As well known to those skilled in the art, a body painting is an act wherein desired pictures or patterns are painted on the naked human body, such as the face or desired parts of the body. Nail art is an act wherein desired pictures or patterns are painted on the trimmed and polished fingernails. In recent years, such a body painting and nail art are performed to express people's personalities.
Body art, such as body painting and nail art, is a kind of traditional custom, and involves an act wherein indelible patterns or pictures are tattooed on the human body, or removable patterns or pictures are painted on the human face or the human body using natural plant dyes or mud.
Such traditional body art was limitedly performed at religious services or ritual ceremonies, and was sometimes performed in combination of arcane ceremonies.
For example, traditional body painting was performed at a coming-of-age ceremony of men of several tribes of the South Pacific Ocean Islands, such as Polynesian tribes, New Caledonian tribes, Maoris of New Zealand, Dafoos, Nagas and Abols of Assam.
In addition, several tribes of South America, such as Guanas, Nambiquaras and Bororos, paint delicate geometrical patterns or asymmetric Arabic patterns on their faces or bodies.
A French anthropologist, C. Revistros, reported that the face painting of the above-mentioned tribes was a means for exhibiting the social status of people.
Tattooing is the act or practice of marking the skin with indelible patterns, pictures, legends, letters, etc., by making punctures in it and inserting pigments. In advanced societies, tattooing is mainly performed as a body decorating means, or a means for expressing one's personality.
Examples of sentimental patterns or pictures typically used in tattoos are hearts penetrated by arrows, hearts locked by locks, names, flowers, flags, etc. Examples of superstitious patterns or pictures typically used in tattoos are horseshoes, clovers, etc. Examples of revenge patterns or pictures typically used in tattoos are skeletons, wounded heads, coffins, hearts encircled by snakes, etc.
The tattoos worn by hoodlums or prisoners are generally violent and offensive. Some hoodlums or prisoners tattoo lewd, lascivious or coarse patterns or pictures on their pubic regions. Occasionally, such tattooing is performed as a means for expressing the member's rank in a criminal organization.
In recent years, eyebrow tattooing for making dark eyebrows, eyelid tattooing for decorating the eyelids, and lip line tattooing for making dark lip lines are widely performed as cosmetic treatments.
However, tattooing is problematic in that the tattooed patterns, pictures or legends are indelible, and so it is almost impossible to remove them from the human body, different from the removable patterns and pictures produced by the body painting or nail art.
In the act of body painting, persons can paint desired patterns, pictures or letters on desired parts of their bodies by themselves, but cannot paint the patterns, pictures or letters on the parts of their bodies, such as the backs, which are not directly viewed by the persons. In addition, it is necessary for a person, wanting to paint patterns, pictures or letters on his/her face, to see a mirror while painting, and so the person must be highly skilled in the face painting. Therefore, it is almost impossible for unskilled persons to paint desired pictures, patterns or letters on their faces by themselves without the assistance of skilled persons.
In nail art wherein desired pictures, patterns or letters are painted on the trimmed and polished fingernails, it is almost impossible for unskilled persons to paint the pictures, patterns or letters on their fingernails. Furthermore, even though a person is highly skilled in the nail art painting, he/she cannot easily or conveniently paint desired patterns, pictures, or letters on the fingernails of his/her both hands as follows: That is, when the person skilled in the nail art painting is a left-handed person, he/she cannot easily or conveniently paint the desired pictures, patterns, or letters on the fingernails of his/her left hand. In the same manner, when the skilled person is a right-handed person, he/she cannot easily or conveniently paint the desired pictures, patterns, or letters on the fingernails of his/her right hand.
In an effort to allow persons to easily and conveniently paint desired patterns, pictures or letters on their fingernails while overcoming the above-mentioned problems, Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. Heisei. 6-70810 proposed a method and device for nail art. In this Japanese method and device provides a thin sheet printed with desired nail art patterns, pictures or letters. In order to use the thin sheet, the sheet is cut into pieces having sizes agreeing with the sizes of users fingernails, and the pieces are attached to the fingernails to accomplish a nail art effect. However, the nail art pieces of such a thin sheet, printed with desired nail art patterns, pictures or letters, are attached to the fingernails by means of a bonding agent applied on the lower surface of the sheet, and so the pieces are easily removed from the fingernails, and contaminate the fingernails by the residue of the bonding agent.
In an effort to overcome the problems experienced in the above Japanese method and device, Korean Patent Laid-open Publication No. 2000-75566 proposed method and apparatus for nail art. In the nail art method of the above Korean patent, one or more fingers of a user are primarily held on a finger holder of the nail art apparatus such that the fingernails are stably positioned on the holder. Thereafter, one or more of the nail art patterns stored in a control unit of the nail art apparatus are selected by the user. After selecting desired nail art patterns, at least one of the finger holder and a printer unit is moved to a predetermined printing position by a feeding unit operated under the control of the control unit. At the predetermined printing position, the printer unit prints the selected nail art patterns on the fingernails.
The nail art apparatus disclosed in the above Korean patent consists of the finger holder for supporting one or more fingers of a user thereon, and the control unit storing a plurality of nail art patterns therein and allowing the user to select one or more of the stored patterns prior to printing the patterns on his/her fingernails. The apparatus also has the printer unit, which is operated under the control of the control unit and prints the selected patterns on the fingernails of the user. The apparatus further includes the feeding unit, which is operated under the control of the control unit in the same manner as that described for the printer unit and feeds at least one of the finger holder and the printer unit to a predetermined printing position. In an operation of the nail art apparatus, the control unit operates the feeding unit to move at least one of the finger holder and the printer unit relative to the other, thus allowing the printer unit to print selected nail art patterns on the fingernails at the predetermined printing position.
However, the above-mentioned Korean nail art method and apparatus only provides a low resolution of about 300 dpi of the printer unit, thus providing only a low printing quality. Therefore, this method and apparatus does not form clear patterns of a desirably high resolution on the fingernails, but only provides obscure patterns of a low resolution.
Another problem of the above Korean nail art method and apparatus resides in that the apparatus has a complex construction, and so it is very difficult to operate the apparatus. Due to such a complex construction, the apparatus also increases its production cost and the elements of the apparatus are frequently broken during an operation of the apparatus. The nail art apparatus thus increases its maintenance cost, and reduces its economic efficiency. This nail art method and apparatus is thus not widely used in the nail art field.